In re Grange's Estate

• Decision Date: 10 March 1942
• Docket Number: 45742.
• Citation: In re Grange's Estate, 2 N.W.2d 635, 231 Iowa 964 (Iowa 1942)
• Parties: In re GRANGE'S ESTATE. JAMES v. THOMAS et al.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

2 N.W.2d 635

231 Iowa 964

In re GRANGE'S ESTATE.

JAMES v. THOMAS et al.

No. 45742.

Supreme Court of Iowa

March 10, 1942

T E. Klay, of Orange City, and Verne W. Vance, of Omaha, Neb for appellants.

Cornwall & Cornwall, of Spencer, and Heald & Heald, of Spencer, for appellee.

HALE Justice.

On June 13 1940, the will of Edna Myrtle Grange, dated August 5, 1939 was filed in the office of the clerk of the district court of Clay county.The will was contested by Vera G. James, the sister of decedent and the only living member of her family, on the ground that testatrix was mentally incompetent.There was trial to a jury and verdict for the contestant.Proponents filed motion for new trial, exceptions to instructions, and motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, all of which were overruled.

Edna Myrtle Grange was born near Ireton, Iowa, in the year 1890.She was a premature child and was not healthy throughout her life.She was difficult, irritable, nervous, and jealous.The record shows that there were three children in the family, one of whom, William, died when a youth.Edna was the oldest.Her parents were kind and devoted, realized that she was unusual, and apparently gave her special care, including three trips and winters in California.After moving to a farm near Sioux Rapids in 1898, Edna attended school, was graduated from high school, and attended for a time the teachers' college at Cedar Falls.After this she taught school, but in 1922she suffered a breakdown and was taken to her home and did not teach any more.She was attended by various doctors, and in June, 1940, her condition became so serious that she was taken to St. Bernard's Hospital at Council Bluffs, and there committed suicide on June 10, 1940.

Her will was offered for probate and a contest instituted.A motion for directed verdict on the ground of insufficiency of the evidence was made by proponents, and was overruled, as were also motions for new trial and for judgment notwithstanding verdict.The question in this case is whether or not the evidence produced by contestant presented a jury question.It is therefore necessary that we review to some extent the contestant's evidence.There was a large number of witnesses whose testimony was offered by the contestant, and a larger list who testified for the proponents.As is usual, their testimony disagrees, and in the opinions expressed there was a decided difference.

Three medical witnesses testified for the contestant.Dr. Ash, medical director at St. Bernard's Hospital, and a witness of large experience in mental and nervous diseases, could testify only as to his observation and the medical history of the patient, and, from observation, only as to the period from June 3, 1940, until the day of her death.He testified that she suffered from manic-depressive psychosis, characterized by agitation, talkativeness, excitement, flighty ideas, marked delusions principally persecutory in nature, and lack of insight into her condition.He testified generally as to the type of mental illness with which she was afflicted and gave his final conclusion that she was of unsound mind at the time she was at St. Bernard's Hospital and that she had suffered from manic-depressive psychosis since 1923.Dr. Dean H. King, of Spencer, who, besides his general practice, had had some experience--about three months--in a hospital for mental diseases in Rhode Island, first treated Edna Grange in March, 1936, for ailments of a physical nature.She was afflicted with nervous troubles and menstrual difficulties, besides other complaints.The doctor prescribed a nerve sedative and a diet.There were frequent treatments for her nervous condition and frequent complaints by her as to such condition.The treatments continued through the summer and afterwards, and in February of 1937, and throughout that year, and afterwards in 1938.In the late fall of 1938she asked for a statement as to her sanity, being at the time very nervous and excitable.The doctor complied with her request and gave her a statement that, in his opinion, she could conduct her own business affairs.His next occasion for observation and treatment was in 1939.The last time was in 1940, shortly before she was removed to the Council Bluffs hospital, when he found the patient in a very excited and nervous condition, with disjointed and unconnected ideas.He testified that from her first visit she appeared neurotic, and during the course of his acquaintance and treatment she talked louder and louder, and became manic, and developed a raving state when she would become extremely excited, sobbing and crying.The condition was progressive.The rest of the time she would be the opposite of this depressed condition, and would be more calm and cheerful; but on each successive time she seemed to be more psychoneurotic until the last two times he saw her.A good many of her complaints were due to her mental condition; a good many were imaginary.This doctor also stated that the disease was manic-depressive psychosis, a form of insanity.The progress of the disease in this case was quite rapid, and in reality there were no lucid intervals; she had arrived at the chronic stage of the disease previous to the time he first saw her, and it became more acute.In his opinion, the doctor stated, she was insane in 1937, and up to November 2, 1938, she would not be competent to know the extent of her property, appreciate the demands of those who might be entitled to her bounty, and to know the disposition that she would want to make of her property.His office memoranda as to her condition were introduced in evidence, but there was no mention made therein as to her mental condition, except for one item made a considerable time after her last visit, in which he stated that he had advised a brother-in-law as to the patient's mental condition.Dr. King testified as to her excitable condition during his observation, and explained, as to the statement he gave her, that she did not tell him why she wanted a certificate.

Dr. Swallum of Spencer--formerly of Sioux Rapids--was a witness.He qualified as to his experience and stated that he had known Edna Grange since 1933.He testified as to her extreme nervous state and her imagining that she had done her mother a great wrong before her mother died, and that she worried about the wrong she had committed, and imagined that she had caused her mother's death, or helped cause it.She spoke of the "unpardonable sin."The fact is, as shown by various witnesses, that her relations with her mother were extremely affectionate, although at times she had complained of her father as not giving her the same chances as her sister.Dr. Swallum testified that she was extremely excited at all times, and, by the time she would get through explaining her symptoms, she would be almost screaming; she was extremely hysterical.He also gave her sedatives and prescribed a diet, recommended a treatment to induce sleep, and advised that she change her environment.During the first treatment the doctor diagnosed her trouble as neurasthenia, an extremely excitable mental state and also an imaginative state; her only trouble was mental.Later, after a couple of years, when she was again brought to him for treatment, he found she was extremely excited, had not slept for days, imagined all sorts of things, was afraid someone was trying to steal things from her--such as stock and personal belongings, and articles belonging to her father.She complained of her treatment by her family, that her father had prevented her from having company, and that her sister did not treat her right.Her mother had died at that time but her father was always considered as thoughtful and very much concerned about her well-being.These visits to Dr. Swallum's office continued for several years.She informed him on different occasions that she was going to commit suicide.This was during the years 1926, 1927, and 1928, and at that time she was very hysterical.After 1923 her mental symptoms were more severe.In 1925 the doctor suggested a companion for Edna, and the family then went to Sioux City and got a little girl--Maxine--from the Children's Home.After this Edna would become excited over something that might happen to this child.These conditions continued until the death of her father, in 1933.In June, 1939, she visited the doctor again at his office in Spencer, and consulted with him about Maxine's desire to become a nurse.These visits continued throughout the summer and until October, and from June to October the doctor saw her two or three times a week.She was undecided about the nursing school the girl should attend and had difficulty making up her mind.She seemed, on these visits, to be suspicious of Maxine, and said that she could not be trusted.At these times she was agitated, excited, and nervous.Her mental condition at that time was just the same as previously.He testified that he would not say she was of sound mind at any time.He also said she was suffering from manic-depressive psychosis and that she had been during all the years he had testified about; that it had reached the chronic stage, and that in that stage the patient can be more or less violent, he has hallucinations and delusions and feels that someone is trying to do him harm.Edna was not of sound mind during the summer of 1939.He stated that he signed a certificate as to her mentality, that he did not want to disagree or argue with the patient and she asked for a statement showing that she could carry on her own affairs.She was at the time very hysterical, and he gave the statement for theurapeutic reasons; it would be the worst thing he could do to tell a person suffering from a mental disorder...